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1962 - John Glenn Went Swimming and Water Skiing With Jackie Kennedy. Also Orbited Earth.

Submitted by Mary on Mon, 07/18/2011 - 12:22pm (2132 reads)

John Glenn turns 90 years old today! Happy birthday, you Earth Orbiter, you! Let's take a little trip back in time to John Glenn's earlier years and imagine that the social networking sites were around back then. Let's go with the year of 1962. In John Glenn's info on a social newtworking page, he might have listed his hometown as Cambridge, Ohio. He might have listed a little info in his bio about his history with the Navy and Marine Corps in the 40's and 50's. But, what would his status updates say in 1962? Maybe he might have said something like:

"About to orbit the Earth. Nobody has done this before, so I'm not quite sure what to expect, but I'm betting it will be cool."

"Just spent the last 5 hours circling the globe three times. I wasn't sure how cool it would be, but it was definitely totally cool. Whoah."

"Off to Hyannis Port! Hanging with the Kennedys! Laterzzz"

"Went boating with John and the fam and water skiing with Jackie! Almost as cool as orbiting the Earth!"

Actually, I don't think John Glenn would have said any of the above. He had way too much going on to brag about it. And he certainly didn't do those things to brag about them. He was just living it up and being himself. Also, people didn't say "totally cool" and "laterzzzzz" back then. And even if they did, John Glenn doesn't strike me as the type to go the "laterzzzzzz" route.

What route did John Glenn go? Well, he went the college - military - astronaut - politician route. If he wanted to, he could say "I'm kind of a big deal." and get away with it.

He also became the oldest person to fly in space in 1998 at the age of 77. He's also a husband and a father of two. In 2013, he and his wife will celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary, which would be a huge life accomplishment even if he hadn't accomplished any of the other things he he has done.

People at Ferris Bueller's high school would likely say that John Glenn is just as much a righteous dude as Ferris Bueller. John Glenn and Ferris Bueller both have that spirit of adventure. John Glenn circled the globe and Ferris Bueller circled Chicago. In less than a day. Wonder what John Glenn will be up to next!